BRIEF CAMP DESCRIPTION: Growing Goddess is a Nature Based Rites of Passage Camp (ages 11-14) that celebrates the sacred time when a girl is becoming a woman. Through nature connection, supportive sisterhood, ritual, play and mentorship our true gifts emerge.

CAMP LOCATION: 20 minutes from downtown Asheville, NC. Sacred Mountain Sanctuary is nestled on hundreds of acres of pristine mountain land, surrounded by Pisgah National Forest. The property encompasses 2 mountain coves and neighbors a 3600ft elevated mountain bald with breathtaking views of Mount Pisgah and the surrounding areas. The coves are abundant with pristine water and important native plant species. Much of the property is blessed with a century-old mixed deciduous forest, making it an important species repository of the Southern Appalachian biome. - See more at: Our Camp Website Link: earthpatheducation.com

CAMP PROGRAM INFO: Our VisionAt Earth Path Education we encourage the experience of being at home in nature and within oneself. We empower girls, boys, young women and men, adults and elders to claim the path to earth connection that is within each of us. We begin to see how bio-mimicry, being like the stream, being like the deer, can help us to live harmoniously, reducing stress and enhancing the ease of our existence. Through learning Earth skills, nature awareness, and ancestral wisdom we remember our place in an interconnected web; we remember who we are.

When we commune with our unity; we naturally develop compassionate communication skills with all beings. These skills aid us throughout life by allowing us to feel how our thoughts, words, and actions affect the whole of our community, the whole of life. We then begin to understand how we want to show up for ourselves, our communities, and our world.

With an understanding of our inter-connectedness to Earth and each other, we grow the roots to support a life of balanced giving and recieving. We naturally develop the inner wisdom that allows each of us to live our lives with confidence in ourselves and our visions, integrity within our relationships and actions, and humble gratitude for all that we experience everyday.

We help grow a culture of listening to mother earth as our wisest mentor.

Our ApproachNature Awareness:Through focusing on nature awareness we encourage our students to experience what is happening around them, awakening curiosity and inspiration. When students are empowered to root in processes like making fire, foraging wild foods, making rope, and learning bird songs; they begin to feel capable of relaxing and deepening in the wilderness. We believe that learning skills of how to source our human lives from the abundant life around us grows respect; respect for the plants that heal our wounds, the sticks that give us warmth, and the creek that cools us. We develop a deepening gratitude to the elements that offer us life.

Regenerative Presence:We use a variety of tools to inspire a regenerative presence on the planet. At Earth Path Education, we believe that the concept of regeneration is the key to a harmonious future here on Earth. We believe that as humans we can do more than not harm, we can actually feed all of creation with our beauty, our rituals, our songs, and our deep listening.

Village Building:We hold necessary the role of the village in our Wilderness Rites of Passage ceremonies. It is the village that sends the initaites into their journeys, and the village that catches the initaites and witnesses the transformations. The rites of passage is also a key part to the health of the village, pumping all members with health, inspirations and vitality, bringing to the village the vision seeds that are to sprout us into a more harmonious way of relating.

Ceremonial Arts:At Earth Path Education we are committed to the beauty way. We make earth offerings, and leave equsitie altars in the forest. We sings and dance, at each spring, we feed the fire with our stories and we compost our grief and our burdens, so that life can grow corn with it to feed the people. We pray for our lives, we pray for the earth. Our dreams bring us messages, and as we tune into our rhythms, and synch up with the rythms of the land. The earth starts to dream up through us, clarifying our purpose, calling us forward, and illuminating our gifts. Our ceremonies are an art of listening, to that wisdom which has been held in the earth and is just waiting to be danced up through us.

Permaculture:Permaculture creates systems that provide for Human needs and the Earth’ s needs through mutually beneficial relationships. The health of our human community is linked to our local bioregion, which in turn is linked to the wellbeing of all ecosystems. We instill the ethics of Elemental Linking and Holistic Thinking. As every element becomes an integral part of the whole system, the whole community becomes more dynamic, harmonious, and energy efficient. These enhanced relationships reduce maintenance and stress, while increasing yields and happiness. These permaculture principles apply to our ecological relationship and our social relationships.

Play:We instill the idea that work and play can be one in the same. We inspire youth and adults to follow the things that they are truly passionate about. We help guide each other to feel confident in achieving our dreams, and manifesting a life that we are happy to be living each day. We believe that the most harmonious accomplishments come from a people who love what they were doing, feeling that their calling, is a place where ones passion is meeting the thrist of the world and bringing sweet water to the driest of places. We support our participants in finding this inspiration, passion, and motivation within themselves and taking action on their calling.

Meet Our InstructorsWe offer instruction from connected, knowledgeable Ecologists, Naturalists, Primitive Skills Enthusiasts, and Crafts Teachers, and other Earth-loving individuals. We invite special Guest Teachers and Inspirational Elders to join us throughout our programs. Please check out our instructor bios. All of our instructors will share with your children and teens the wisdom they have been so committed to incorporating into their lives and the world. The great thing is we will learn as much if not more from them!

OTHER CAMP INFO: Growing Goddess is much more than your average camp. Here at Earth Path Education, we are truly passionate about supporting youth as they grow and mature. We think of these young women as a part of our family, and strive to support them in all aspects of their lives. We provide a safe space for these girls to freely share their joys and their sorrows. We thrive together through honoring our sisterhood. As we see the benefits of connecting together within a supportive network, all competitive energy melts away. With the guidance of mentors and a close connection to the earth, a culture is created that marks this powerful transition with intentional ceremony.

The Rites of Passage allows each young woman to connect to her inner guidance. This clarity inspires self-confidence, empowered decision-making, compassionate communication, and goal motivation. We come together to find the beauty inherent in each of us, so we fully believe in ourselves and each other. We sing, we dance, we celebrate! We learn about who we are and how we want to show up for our communities, this earth and our lives.

We learn about how to care for our amazing bodies, and discuss how to maintain a positive body-image. We learn about the traditional Moon Lodge, a sacred space established to honor a woman’s moontime. Through implementing these ceremonial practices, we learn how we can create space to deeply explore the blessings of being a woman.

We experience ourselves through ceremony and through play! We learn ancestral crafts, games, stories, and songs as we root into our bio-region! As we camp and hike our amazing landscapes, we explore the ways in which we can sustain ourselves through our understanding of the natural world. We learn a variety of earth skills including how to make fire, wild edibles, permaculture, plant medicines, and much more.

We call upon elders in our community to share their wisdom; we bring in strong role models to teach a variety of skills, crafts, and classes. Together we form a web that nourishes the fertile soil that feeds our growth and expansion throughout life. This quest is a powerful and fun-filled experience for all, helping to create the beautiful, heart-centered women of our future!

Be sure to check each camp listing under INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES OFFERED for the range of Special Interest Activities and Programs provided by each North Carolina Summer Camp or Summer Recreation Program.

Many North Carolina Day and Sleepaway Camps offer professional level instruction in a wide-range of activities, from Horseback Riding, to Computers & Technology, to Performing Arts, to Leadership.

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